100 years ago in Spokane: LC’s football team was on the train to Ohio for a big game, hoping to ‘put Lewis and Clark and Spokane on the map’

Herbert “Butch” Meeker, the Lewis and Clark High School star halfback, reported that the entire team was “highly pleased by the warm send-off given them” in Spokane.

The team was on a Milwaukee Road train, headed for Toledo, Ohio, where they were scheduled to play Scott High School. Both teams were undefeated, and were chosen for a match of regional powerhouses.

“Everyone is feeling fit as a result of light workouts that were given the team at various towns along the line,” Meeker reported via telegraph.

This was likely the longest train ride many of the players had ever experienced, and they were “enjoying it immensely, especially the ride through the mountains.”

The boys were invited up into the electric locomotives for short stretches though the Bitterroot Range.

Mornings on the train were given over to schoolwork, but their thoughts were clearly on football.

“Everyone is optimistic as to the outcome of the game, although no one is overconfident,” Meeker said. “We will give everything we have to win and help put Lewis and Clark and Spokane on the map.”

From the scandal beat: While testifying at a U.S. Senate hearing, Charles Forbes, of Spokane and ex-director of the federal Veteran’s Bureau, angrily denied taking bribes or engaging in any drunken or risqué behavior while on a trip to Hayden Lake.

Elias Mortimer, a Philadelphia contractor, had earlier testified that Forbes had accepted $5,000 from him in $500 bills at a hotel room on the trip.

“That is absolutely a lie,” Forbes testified. “It’s false. It’s absurd.”

“Now what about Mortimer’s story about you and lady friend jumping into the lake at Hayden Lake?” a committee member asked.

“How does he know; he wasn’t there,” Forbes replied.

Forbes went on to say that he and some friends went on a fishing trip, and there was a suggestion that the party go bathing. He said “all were roughly dressed” and that he jumped into the water.

“I know of no drunkenness on that trip except Mr. Mortimer,” he said. “I swear to God there was no carousing or anything wrong on that trip.”